GORN

This is a very early prototype of my physics based VR gladiator brawler, working title GORN. You'll need a Vive to play it. Lots of placeholder stuff and lots of jank but you should be able to get an idea of what the game is about.

I really appreciate all forms of feedback, even (especially!) if you didn't like it, so please let me know what you think: @rrza on twitter, or leave a comment here.

The game isn't quite ready for me to make a trailer, but here is a video on youtube of someone playing to give you an idea:

If you want to make a video of yourself playing this, please go ahead I really appreciate it, I'd just also really appreciate it if you mention that the game is a pre-alpha tech demo that is in no way representative of the final game's quality :)

If you would like to keep up with development of the game, you can either follow me on twitter: @rrza or sign up for the GORN mailing list here:

I have to thank you for this game. I make VR videos at YouTube.com/oVRdose, and I have to tell you this is by far my favorite VR game so far. It's just a tech demo, but the way this game feels is more satisfying than almost any other game I've ever played. The ability to grab somebody by the back of the head and pummel their face in until it's unrecognizable may sound incredibly sadistic but it's so so so satisfying!

You sir are a legend and I'm very excited for the steam release of this game. I'll have to play around with it more to make sure this feature isn't already in there, but I suggest making a one-handed version of the spear that can be thrown. I know you can currently throw the two-handed spear, but I mean Like maybe in the same vein as the way the arrows are laid across the ground, there could be a couple of javelins which are rigid instead of floppy. Then again maybe this is redundant. That's just a thought that crossed my mind many times the last time I played.

Fist weapons would be fun as well! Like brass knuckles with big spikes. Just some ideas

And this isn't really a big deal but maybe you could change the faces of some of the opponents or maybe even give some of them hair. Just some ideas to give this game more recognizable personality than it already has! The more and more polished this thing gets the more exciting it becomes! Just to be clear I already love what you have and I would pay for it as is without any further updates.

The damage mechanics in this game are my favorite in any video games so far and I am so excited to see how you update this further and expand what is already an amazing experience. I would love to be able to rip their limbs off with my bare hands

I feel like this game has more potential than any other VR game out there so far as far as fun and replayability.

The hammer is my favorite weapon, and I would love to see more enormous weapons that have a large impact. The sledgehammer nature of the hammer feels so good! I really feel like I am smashing people with a giant hammer despite the floppiness and weightlessness. If you ever want any free promotional help in anyway feel free to contact me as I will gladly spread the word. The more people know about games like this one, the more people will get Vives faster, The better off the entire VR community will be.

You have created something timeless here and the best way to show VR to people who have never seen it. I put my seven-year-old brother in this game and he played for two straight hours. That's longer than I've ever seen anybody play in a VR headset. I'm going to record him playing and upload that video, he was actually pretty bad ass for seven year old!

Keep up the good work my friend, I will be back here often checking for updates as I will be regularly covering this game.

Hey, thanks for all the kind words. Many of those suggestions are either planned or already in the works to some capacity. Hopefully I will have a Early Access version on Steam sometime early next year. And I'd love to see the video of your little brother playing!

Well I will be sure to keep checking back here for updates. I am considering making another video today! I really think the damage is my favorite element of this game so far, as I have never been so satisfied punching someone in a video game before. It's also worth noting that this game runs surprisingly well when compared to other more well known VR titles out there.

Again I really appreciate everything you're doing. You are helping my YouTube channel grow and hooking me with my new favorite VR game at the same time. Excited for the next update!

So I made an account just to post this comment. I just want to let you know this is currently my favorite Vive game. And it's only a tech demo, which makes me giddy thinking about how a fully developed version would be like.

One thing I'd love to see implemented is instead of having randomized weapons and enemies, I'd love to be able to choose instead. My favorite weapons in the game are the sword and spear, so I'd love to use primarily those weapons. I'd also like to fight enemies without armor, not because I want to take the easy route, but because of how satisfying it is to slice up enemies with the sword.

Anyway, I absolutely love this game, jank and all. Keep up the good work yo :)

I can't stop playing this. Seriously. If you do something about being able to grab the enemies and basically cheat your way through, at least have an option to keep it. Though cheap, it's incredibly satisfying. But seriously. This is the most satisfying VR experience I've had yet, and I've had a lot of them.

Also, is there any way to skip the "beginner" waves every time I start up the game? I play this a lot and would rather just jump into the action.

And if possible, could you add an option to choose specific weapons to play with? I like the random selection, but an option to play that way as well would be lots of fun.

I truly love this game. It has the potential to be polished into a must own for all VR players. I have noticed a few uncomfortable parts of the game that would make me lose interest over time.

1. Being able to pick up an enemy and swing them around till everyone dies is cheap. They should be able to break out of a hold somehow.

2. The random system of weapons and enemies can be very cruel. 1 shield and bow is almost impossible without grabbing an enemy in some scenarios.

The issue with both of these is that it breaks my flow. After a while, I stop having fun and start relying on same old tactics because the situation is too easy or too hard. Ultimately that is what will make me put the game down.

Enemy difficulty can be variable based on weapons, Armour, speed and size. I would advise against adding any new gladiators until you are able to match a difficulty rating to a players ability using those stats alone.

Weapon selection will ultimately come down to a game of rock/paper/scissors for highly skilled experienced players. Spear beats sword guys, Mace beats spear(you can knock it out of the way easily and it is more firm), The fact you made the spear so difficult to control means deep down I think you know this and I could not have more high regard for your work because of this. When developing the main quest or waves in the complete game, keep this in mind. Let the players use each weapon to its advantage and select the right one sometimes.

The ability for this game to cater to both a new player and potential for the pro makes it the most diamond in the rough VR game I have seen. Keep up the amazing work.

My wife can't handle all the blood, might want to make that a feature you can opt out of.

Yeah, when I demo the game to people I tell them that grabbing = cheating. I really need to still figure that out! And the Steam version of the game will have a much different progression than the "random fights" setup there is now.

There will also be a "reduced violence" option in the final version of the game.

I have to thank you Raithza. Its mainly because of GORN that our YouTube channel oVRactive has been growing so quickly. We were one of the first channels to upload GORN content. I absolutely love the game and so do our viewers, always asking for more. You should be aware that on our channel alone we have over 70k GORN related hits. Looking at larger channels, this game has massive exposure! I have played countless hours of GORN, countless. Please check out the channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqXRqyrFGzZF7Qy2r...

Having played so damn much of this game I feel I could help out well with playtesting, suggestions, feedback, weapon balance, difficulty, and I'd be happy to since we figure we owe you one for making such an interesting VR game prototype free to us. I can't wait to buy it.

The way you got around the 'not having weight' is really good IMHO, with the 'floppy' weapons that can accomodate for collisions and give-out to resistance is probably the best method for doing it.

My biggest request would be to add more exotic weapons. Bo-staff, naginata, wolverineclaws, and I would freak out if you added nunchaku. The spikeflail is halfway there. But there are many more requests and suggestions I could give.

Best of luck with the rest of the game! Shout me up for anything I can help with and we will buy as soon as you release it :D

The morning star as you say is is close to nunchaku, but in the current build I need the handle to do damage (as well as spikeball) to fully utilise the nunchaku moves i know. Both sides of the chain/joint are grabbable currently which is essential for doing the moves, but if both sides (handle and spikeball) did damage on collision then alot more moves would actually be viable in combat. E.g I need something like the morningstar, but with a small spikeball mounted on a small handle on each side of the flexible joint. Mirror symetry on the weapon would be a bonus. I would play hours of this game with nunchucks alone, and prob make countless vids too... if you can make it happen :D

Would be happy to playtest for feedback obviously :D Didn't realise you had a reddit :D Will check it out now!

Hey, Great game! The new update you did added much more difficulty to it, which is good. For you next update- I think these features should be added:

Enemies: Normal are the 'typical' enemies that spawn in randomly- boss are harder enemies that have their own practice arena during the scripted fights in beginning- bosses can spawn with regulars during the random matches.

(Normal variations)- Besides the classic random gear- foot soldiers currently in the game atm, these new enemies are specialized .in a certain form of combat

Berserker: A slender creepy enemy wearing light hooded armor and white war paint- has two swords and will run at the player quickly in hopes of stealing the show and killing him/her quickly.-low health- quick speed

Archer assassin: A female, attractive enemy that spawns wearing fur revealing armor, a featherd helmet showing her face and a bow and arrows and a dagger. She hangs back and shoots three arrows at the player, but after the three- she pulls out a dagger and tries to stab the player up close- medium health-medium speed- good archer though

Imperius- A heavily armored 'tank' enemy that has the big hammer and kills in one shot, but is very slow.

Boss-

Imperator- A quick, heavily armored enemy that has the strength of the imperius, but the speed of the berserker

Dracion- A serpent like creature that slithers and tries to bite at the player- can be killed by repeatedly cutting at its head until its decapitated.- fast speed- medium damage- quick attack

Maurice- A minotaur that's slow but hits hard and has lots of health

Sparrow: A cloaked small and skinny girl that has a black robe that goes to above her belly button, and she is wearing black shorts. Crows go around her and she sends a flock at the player and the player must kill the crows before they bite him too much. After her crows die, she runs at the player with two dagger, and has little health but hits hard.

The game should also have these new weapons-

Spiked shield: Handles same as regular shield but if bashed into enemy it guts them, making them bleed out

Brass knuckles: Lets you knock enemies to the ground in one hit with the knuckles, more damage, face hits are instakill

More features:

Though the new enemy AI is pretty good, they sometimes get stuck far away and I cant kill them because they are caught on a wall or have no legs so cant move- making me start all over. A 'I surrender; option to go to next match would help.

Voiced over 'heads'- The heads are a funny and good idea- but if they have some british funny actors voice or a strong germ accent it would make it better

More sounds from enemies: The enemies should mock you in the beginning of the fight and after they lose a limb or get hurt they should be more auditory about it instead of just going 'um um'. There should also be a surrender feature for the (Normal variation) enemies where if they lose a arm or get hurt bad and are the last one alive, they have a chance of surrendering and the crowd of heads(and hopefully voiced over main head) makes a funny comment depending on the enemy type and then either letting the enemy be spared, or telling you to kill the enemy. If you choose to spare the enemy, the enemy can help you (and is fully healed /limbs back) in the next wave- so if a 'Berserker' surrenders- and you spare it- it attacks the next wave of enemies. This will add a humorus watchable fight where the derpy AI enemies fight each other lol.

That's all I have for the next update(s)-tell me if you liked any of them!

The girl archers, for eye candy, for inspiration on the look of the girl archers look to the ps2 gam shadows of rome- there is girl archer enemies in that game that would look muy bien in vr- and the archers would make players actually have to dodge arrows instead of just chopping and lopping enemies.

The snake enemies to scare some people and make a challenge since they are low and im tall, so slicing low would be a challenge for me, which I like

The minotaur, which could be a slightly upscaled regular dude but in metal minotaur armor thatll scale up to atleast 6 foot 5 (im 6'1) and if you can get me to go ooh shit this thing can kick my ass- you did something right.

Also, adding in more armor types (get inspiration from actual gladiator armor from the roman republic/empire) would make the enemies unique without having to make more variations of enemes model wise.

If you have atleast 3 enemies, voiced heads, more weapons, more realistic arena, more armor, and actual hands holding the weapons, then id drop 20 or 25 on the game easy.

Also, i'm into film, and i'm doing a 'realistic vr' series where I dress like the game characters in vr games and play the game and record it- and your game will be the first one I do on the channel.

Ive been having my friends try gorn and they all love it! Its very addicting and with some more work- it could be a very good seller.

Make sure you actively try to get it out there though, as that will be the hardest part. Luckily there Is not much vr games for the htc vive out there now, but as the vive gets more cheaper, and people buy it by next year (February of 2017 it'll probably hit its peak) then id release the full version by febuary if you want to maximize profits for it before a lot of 'big budget' games come out for it by march, which I want you to do since that means there will be a better gorn 2 lol

I've read some comments saying to fix the grabbing and strange weapon/game physics. Personally I say don't change a thing on this. It's what makes the game so freaking fun to play!!! I laugh so hard when a guys randomly go flying out of the arena after their maces won't stop spinning xD

1. I really don't like the way you hold the spear and the war hammer; it feels very wonky and hard to control.

2. I don't know if this is intended, but if you grab the other enemies in the level, you can smash the other enemies with his body, which does as much damage as the war hammer does if not more. I also have found a bug that when a enemy gets stuck in the corner of the arena, sometimes he can get invulnerable. (plz fix)

3. I feel like a movement system would be very cool. But please if you do add one, make a teleportation system and a onward esc system.

4. Like how you added the armour, you should add higher level characters; like bosses and such.

5. A menu would be pretty helpful where you could choose if you want to skip the tutorial.

6. 1v1 multiplayer would be pretty cool even though it probably won't happen. (I'm fine without it)

btw I fucking love this game, and will hope you continue developing it and improving on what already is a really fun and amazing game.

Hey there! Absolutely love your game; I've logged in at least 30 hours by now. Because I'm a know-it-all, I would like to offer some simple suggestions that I think would improve gameplay for everyone:

1: Change the weapon grip to be a toggle, rather than having to hold the trigger for the duration of a fight. Cramps your fingers rather quickly.

2: Reduce the gripping radius around enemies. Time and time again have I made a fist and tried to punch a guy, only to realized that I had somehow grabbed him even though he was three feet away. Very annoying, coupled with the issue raised below. Also looks better for when you really do want to grab the guy - it's weird to grab a guy to punch him and see that you're holding him by some invisible anchor 2 feet from his body.

3: Increase the inertia on "grabbed" enemies, even if you have to do it by making the gripping hand move all slugglishly. The way it stands, I can easily toss enemy after enemy right over the edge of the map like toys. Also, you can exert so much force by gripping a guy that there is usually like a 20% chance he'll penetrate the map's geometry somewhere and go nuclear, glitching out and going spinning/flying around at 200 mph.

Anyway, throw this game on Steam and profit, you madman! It's been my favorite Vive game for the past 2 months :)

Hey! Glad to hear people are enjoying the game for longer than just the 10 minutes it takes to get through the levels. I've been taking a break from working on it for the past 2 weeks but am back on it again full steam from next week.

1. Yeah, I've felt that holding the trigger is more ""immersive"" when having to hold a weapon compared to the lax grip you need when holding the VIVE wand, but enough people have complained about cramped hands that I'll implement the side grit button as a toggle.

2. I'd actually removed the ability to grab live enemies in a previous build but put it back due to popular request. I sort of consider grabbing enemies to be cheating in this build. It definitely needs polish. I don't really know how to give the characters any illusion of weight, making the gripping hand move slower than the controller is not an acceptable solution. I haven't even quite solved that problem with the 2-handed weapons (though I feel I'm on my way there).

I think it's likely that I'll add different gauntlets that the player wears, and one will have increased punching power and the ability to grab enemies, but you won't be able to wield weapons. That and some polish to the grab range/mechanics might make it feel better.

Thanks for the feedback! It'll be on Steam in the next month or two if all goes to plan.

hi can you make a computer version, so people like us don't have to go to all this trouble of buying and all those things just to play this game. BTW watched some YouTube vids of this game and it looks really cool. ;